President Kennedy named Uesugi Yozan of Yonezawa as the Japanese person he admired most.
Living in Yamagata, I sometimes hear this story, and I am one of the people who love it.
In this post, I write about who Uesugi Yozan was, how the story about President Kennedy has been passed down, and the crafts Yozan left behind in Yonezawa.
Who was Uesugi Yozan?
Uesugi Yozan was a lord of the Yonezawa domain in the mid-Edo period. Born in 1751, he became lord of Yonezawa in 1767, at the age of 17.
At the time, the domain was in deep financial trouble. Yozan encouraged thrift, revived the farming villages and fostered new industries, and in this way he rebuilt the domain's finances.
A verse attributed to Yozan is still widely known today:
If you try, it can be done. If you do not, nothing can be done.
When something is not done, it is because no one tried.
And in the "Denkoku no Ji," the words he passed on when he handed over his position, he wrote that the domain is something passed from ancestors to descendants, and must never be treated as one's own possession.
President Kennedy and the story of Yozan
The story that John F. Kennedy named Uesugi Yozan as the Japanese person he respected is widely known in Japan. It is even written on a sign at Matsugasaki Shrine in Yonezawa.
However, exactly when and where he said it is not clear. According to a library's research record, a search of newspaper articles from that time did not find a report of the moment.
The story is often told together with "Representative Men of Japan" by Uchimura Kanzo, a book written in English to introduce Japanese ways of life to the world, which presents Uesugi Yozan as one of five Japanese figures. It is said that Kennedy may have come to know Yozan through this book.
Then, in September 2014, Caroline Kennedy — the president's daughter and then U.S. Ambassador to Japan — visited Yonezawa and spoke to the people of Yamagata about how her father had respected Yozan. A monument to her visit stands in Matsugasaki Park in Yonezawa.
Wherever the story began, Yozan's way of life has been talked about across the ocean, and from parent to child.
The crafts Yozan nurtured in Yonezawa
Yozan's reforms were not only about thrift. He spread new kinds of work to support people's lives in Yonezawa.
One of them is Sasano Ittobori, wood carving done with a single blade called a sarukiri, using koshiabura wood. The best known is the "Otaka Poppo," a carved hawk. Yozan is said to have encouraged it as side work for farming families.
Because the strength of the hawk overlapped with his own name ("Yo" means hawk), Yozan is said to have treated the carved hawk as a bringer of good fortune, and later encouraged people to display it as a charm against misfortune.
Sericulture and weaving, encouraged in Yozan's time, later grew into Yonezawa-ori textiles, still one of Yonezawa's representative crafts today.
Things we display with a wish
A small hawk carved with a single blade, displayed at home with a wish for strength and good things to come.
What Yozan encouraged in Yonezawa more than 200 years ago may not have been simply handwork, but a way of living: "giving a wish a shape, and displaying it."
I listen to each person's story and paint what they truly wish for and what they have cherished in a single painting — so that every day, when they see it on the wall, they can remember that wish.
If you try, it can be done. I think Yozan's words, still alive in Yonezawa, belong beside the everyday lives of people working toward their wishes.
Visiting Yozan’s Yonezawa
If you would like to know Yozan better, I hope you will visit Yonezawa. On the grounds of the old Yonezawa Castle, several places connected to Yozan and the Uesugi family are within easy walking distance of one another.
Matsugasaki Shrine
This shrine honors Uesugi Yozan. It is an auxiliary shrine of Uesugi Shrine and stands within the castle grounds. You can also read the sign there that tells the story of President Kennedy.
Uesugi Shrine
This shrine honors the warlord Uesugi Kenshin and stands on the site of the castle’s main keep. In its treasure hall, the Keishoden, you can see armor, swords and old documents handed down in the Uesugi family.
Denkoku no Mori Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum
The museum has exhibits on Yozan’s life and work. It also holds the National Treasure folding screens known as the Uesugi version of Rakuchu Rakugai-zu (Scenes in and around Kyoto). The screens are said to have been a gift from Oda Nobunaga to Uesugi Kenshin, and they show the city of Kyoto and the people living there in fine detail. The originals are shown only during the special exhibitions in spring and autumn; at other times, a precise replica is on display. The National Treasure Uesugi family documents, dating back to the Kamakura period, are another of the museum’s treasures.
From JR Yonezawa Station, take the city loop bus for about ten minutes and get off at Uesugi Jinja-mae to visit all three places. Please check the museum’s official website for special exhibition dates and opening days before you go. As a keepsake of your trip, you might look for an otaka poppo hawk carving from Sasano or a piece of Yonezawa textile.
Related reading
- The shop John Lennon visited: Kimura Tosuke, an art dealer born in Yonezawa
- Anniversary paintings — Yamagata ranks second in Japan for long-established companies
Sources
Digital Daijisen, Nihon Jinmei Daijiten, Kyodo News glossary (Uesugi Yozan) — in Japanese
National Diet Library, Collaborative Reference Database (Ichikawa City Central Library) — in Japanese
Yamagata Prefecture (Kyodo Yamagata feature)
Tohoku Tourism Promotion Organization (Otaka Poppo painting experience)
Uchimura Kanzo, Representative Men of Japan
Tohoku Tourism Promotion Organization (Denkoku no Mori Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum; Uesugi Shrine) — in Japanese
Canon Tsuzuri Project (Rakuchu Rakugai-zu, Uesugi version) — in Japanese
